Scoop’s Views

Beloit College’s Class of 2012 Mindset List has been released. It’s a list of things that incoming freshmen – most of whom were born in 1990 – are familiar with, but things they also don’t know or comprehend. For example, Harry Potter could very well be one of their classmates, the Class of 2012 Mindset List notes.

The list was started by Beloit’s Keefer Professor of the Humanities Tom McBride and Public Affairs Director Ron Nief, providing insight into the life and realities — as they exist — for incoming freshmen. It provides cultural touchstones that shape the lives of the incoming students, sometimes making it easier for a professor to understand why some students don’t grasp course content. one such example, for which I must be an exception, is this year’s item #20.

Tags: American Gladiators, Balsamic vinegar, Beloit, Big Macs, Burger King, caller ID, cappucino, charter schools, Clarence Thomas, Class of 2012, Club Med, Coca-Cola, Coke, college grads, color umber, conditioner, Crayola, crayons, credit checks, diapers, eavesdropping, electronic filing, family, fashion scene, films, flat tires, french fries, gas stations, gay rabbis, George Bush, George H.W. Bush, girls, Goosebumps, GPS, Grandma, Green Bay Packers, Haagen-Dazs, Harry Potter, head scarves, Home Alone, hospice, Hubble space telescope, IBM, IBM PC, ice cream, iced tea, IRS, Jay Leno, just don't get it, karaoke, kindergarten, League of Nations, Lenin, Leningrad, living wills, Macaulay Culkin, Martha Stewart, Martha Stewart Living, McDonald's, Mexican border, Mexico, Michael Millkin, Mickey, Mickey Mouse, Microsoft, Mindset List, multi-culturalism, multiculturalism, Muscovites, mustache, national anthem, NC-17, Nintendo Game Boy, off-shore drilling, off-shore oil drilling, oil drilling, Orlando, parties, PCs, Pearl Jam, Pee-Wee Herman, Pee-Wee's Playhouse, Pepsi, Pepsi-Cola, personal privacy, philanthropist, philanthropy, prostate cancer, prostate cancer research, quarterbacks, quidditch, radio stations, recycled plastic bottles, research, resorts, Rock the Vote, Roseanne Barr, Royal New Zealand Navy, rum, Russia, satellite navigation systems, schools, SCotUS, Seinfeld, shampoo, soft drink refills, style, Supreme Court, tax returns, tax revenue increases, Teach for America, The Tonight Show, The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson, TV, typewriters, Universal Studios, vegetable oil, walkers, Walt Disney, Warsaw Pact, Wayne Newton, whatever, Windows, Windows 3.0, World Wide Wrestling, www, XXX

It’s no surprise I hold utter contempt for politicians who have been in office for more than two terms. In fact, I despise most politicians who are serving their second term in office, as these people are generally on the road to a lifelong career as a politician.

In a perfect society, this probably wouldn’t be a problem, but in our less-than-perfect society, a first-term politician learns many of the “tricks” of the political trade, and in their second term, if they wait that long, they begin practicing and honing those tricks to their benefit. Things that typically benefit politicians generally do not benefit the American public (a.k.a. voters or constituents).

Tags: 2008 Presidential election, election 2008, Internet crowd, News, presidential candidates, presidential election

Earlier today, around 2:10 p.m., miscommunication between a Congressional staffer, as well as workers at Cleveland’s City Hall, led to news reports from the Cleveland Plain Dealer, the Associated Press, and CNN, among other news outlets, to prematurely report the death of U.S. Representative Stephanie Tubbs Jones, 57, who was serving her fifth term in Congress.

This evening, at 6:12 p.m., however, the Congresswoman was pronounced dead about 24 hours after being taken to the hospital by ambulance. She would have celebrated her 59th birthday in 21 days, on September 10.

Tags: aneurysm, aneurysmal subarachnoid hemorrhage, Barack Obama, Bethany Baptist Church, brain aneurysm, Carib News Multi-National Business Conference, Case Western Reserve University, Central State University, Cleveland Clinic, Cleveland Heights Ohio, Cleveland Heights Police Department, Cleveland Ohio, Cleveland Public Schools, Cleveland State University, Delta Sigma Theta, Democratic National Convention, Dr. Gus Kious, East Cleveland Ohio, Flora Stone Mather College, forum on electoral reform, hematoma, Hillary Clinton, Human Rights Campaign of Cleveland Equality Award, Huron Hospital, Huron Road Hospital, Marcus Garvey Award, Mervyn Jones, National Bible Association Capitol Hill Distinguished L, Notre Dame College, Stephanie Tubbs Jones, subarachnoid hemorrhage, superdelegate, U.S. Congress, U.S. House of Representatives

It’s always nice when someone with means (you know, the people called “the haves”) reaches out and helps others in society with less (those people called “the have-nots”), but sometimes things that are done for supposed “have nots” is ridiculous. A classic example is in the news today.

It seems Donald “The Donald” Trump is doing something with his money to help another American couple deal with their personal woes as a result of defaulting on their mortgage. That’s nice, right?

Tags: ads, broken neck, CNN, combover, commercials, Donald Trump, Ed and Pamela McMahon, Ed McMahon, employment, entertainer, financial irresponsibility, fiscal irresponsibility, fiscal responsibility, frontman, Howard Bragman, Johnny Carson, Larry King, Larry King Show, lawsuits, mold, mold growth, mortgage crisis, mortgages, News, Pamela McMahon, Publishers Clearinghouse, sidekick, Society, televison, The Donald, the have-nots, the haves, The Simpsons Movie, The Tonight Show, The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson, work

Below is a joke sent to me by a friend, Stan (aka Stan the Man), an alum at my alma mater who is old enough to be my father, or on a bad day, an older brother.

Stan’s a good guy. He likes to keep busy in real life, and when he isn’t busy, you can tell: he sends tens of email messages, some with photos, some with jokes, others with videos or PowerPoint presentations, and some, well, they have a subject line warning you of “how bad” the content may be, starting with a rating of R, if I recall a message from months ago correctly. You have to appreciate someone who is willing to tag potentially “offensive” messages in the subject line – whether for your own preferences or due to workplace restrictions.

Tags: blue vest, children, courteous, email messages, emails, employment, Forrest Gump, Friends, greeter, Humor, jobs, jokes, kids, manners, Navy, offensive, older Americans, older workers, part time jobs, Photos, polite, PowerPoint presentations, presentations, retirees, subject lines, supervisors, twins, US Navy, videos, Wal-Mart, Walmart, woman, Women, workplace, yelling

I was browsing through YouTube and came across an original, interesting, and hilarious video created Dan Saul Knight Productions, with the video’s song sung by Robert Lund.

The video is called 99 words for boobs and deals with 99 words you and I and everyone else either use or hear every day, but in this video, the words have that sexy, delicious, sweet, soft, luscious meaning. Ah, all better. Had to clear some melons, er, thoughts, from my mind so I could finish the post.

Tags: 99 words, 99 words for boobs, boobies, boobs video, breasts, Dan Saul Knight Productions, delicious, luscious, melons, parody, Robert Lund, sexy, soft, sweet, words for boobs, YouTube

There are at least a handful of people arguing the U.S. government needs to “do more” to regulate online pharmacies. Sure, that may be true, but right now, face the facts: most in Congress are older people who are technologically-challenged. In fact, look at legislation about most any aspect of life and you’ll see most of it is at least 10 or more years behind the times. I won’t even touch on the health care crisis in the U.S.

In a story on CNN.com, one woman cried to the cable news channel that she found her husband on their marriage bed, dead, in a pool of vomit. He allegedly died from what the woman — the widow — declares was an accidental overdose of drugs the now-dead husband received from an online pharmacy.

Tags: American Fork, anonymous, carisoprodol, Carmen Catizone, clinics, CNN.com, dead, death, depression, drugs, Elavil, European Medicines Agency, European Union, fitness, Health, husband, Illegal Drugs, Kareem Tannous, Long Island, Mental Health, Mood Disorders, Nancy Fitzpatrick, National Association of Boards of Pharmacy, online pharmacies, online pharmacy, pharmaceuticals, Prozac, Rusty Payne, Science and Technology, side effects, Soma, Sweden, Technology, U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration, Utah, Valley Stream, Websites

While we aren’t yet using the thumbprint technology in transactions such as buying a home, grocery shopping, or, for that matter, shopping at most any store, it is used for government stuff, as well as used for computing security.

Did Simon Ramo have it all wrong back in November 1964, or was he a little too optimistic for his time? I think it’s the latter. Even in the late 1990s and early this decade, even as late as 2003 or so, I heard people I know dismiss the idea of using debit cards, as well as ATMs, even for cash advances from a credit card. Those same people, though, also were against online shopping.

Tags: 1964, ATMs, automatic money transfers, banking systems, Big Brother, business transactions, buying a home, cash, coinage, computer security, credit cards, currency, debit cards, dollars, electronic debit systems, futurists, Government, identification, identity theft, instant money transfers, monetary symbols, monetary systems, money, November 1964, November 27, online shopping, paper dollars, paper money, payment systems, shopping, Simon Ramo, thumb-prints, thumbprint technology, thumbprints, TIME, Time magazine

Congress has approved a $300 billion funding measure to help people who are at risk of losing their homes due to foreclosure, and now, it seems, almost every media outlet in the country is busy touting the ways to stake claim to your chunk of change from that bailout.

To be in foreclosure means you haven’t paid your mortgage. Wow! What a concept. Most of the people in the current mortgage crisis are people who managed to get mortgages from lenders who offered sub-prime loans. The loans were given to people with a variety of options, but many people who never would have managed to get a mortgage from traditional lenders managed to buy a home. Great. Until the taxpayer-funded bailout.

Tags: afford, approved, bills, Congress, crisis, dream homes, emergency bailout, financial woes, fiscally-responsible, foreclosure rates, foreclosure risk, foreclosures, home affordability, homeowners, in foreclosure, lenders, lending institutions, loans, mortgage bailout, mortgage crisis, mortgage lenders, political correctness, politically correct, politicians, sub-prime, sub-prime mortgages, subprime, subprime mortgages, taxpayer bailout, taxpayer money, taxpayers, traditional mortgages

After giving up on lifesaving efforts, the lifeguards covered each of the girls’ bodies with a beach towel out of respect for the dead. The feet and ankles of both girls poked from under the beach towels, a testament to two young lives snuffed out.

Within feet of the girls’ bodies, folks went about sunbathing and other beach antics as normal, ignoring the two dead bodies.

Tags: Archbishop of Naples, beach towels, Brooklyn, Cardinal Crecenzio Seppe, cardiopulmonary resuscitation, coffins, CPR, dead bodies, drugs, emergency room floor, emergency services, enforcement, Esmin Green, feet poking from under towel, girls, gun laws, Gypsy, killings, Kings County Hospital Center, La Repubblica, lifeguards, lifeless bodies, lifesaving efforts, mortuary, murders, Naples, ocean, Philadelphia, Photos, photos of dead girls and beachgoers, rising street crime, Roma emergency, safety, sea, Silvo Berlusconi, Society, swimming, teenagers, Torregaveta, waves

While you and I are sitting at home, enjoying all the creature comforts, American fighting men and women are in distant lands, including Afghanistan and Iraq, sweating their butts off, literally, while going on patrols, doing raids, and other duties, and their performance – or responses – could be the difference between life-and-death.

As for Sen. Barack Obama, the presumed Democratic presidential candidate who is doing a tour of specific areas in Afghanistan and Iraq, supposedly getting a first-hand look at the situation on the ground, things are much different. His environment will be hot, sandy, dirty, but secure, for the most part. Because Obama, like McCain and others during past trips, are members of Congress, the military will provide a shroud around the “dignitaries” – ensuring, to the best of their ability, the survival of the elected officials, even at the expense of service men and women.

Tags: 2008 presidential candidates, 82nd Airborne Division, airborne, armed conflict, Barack Hussein Obama, Barack Hussein Obama II, Barack Obama, barry o'bomber, body armor, desert fatigues, Ft. Bragg, G.I. Bill, Harvard University, heroes, infantry, infantry platoon leader, insurgents, John F. Kennedy School of Government, John McCain, LBE, load bearing equipment, McCain abortion, McCain for President, McCain issues, McCain potatoes, Obama for President, off-the-record, paratrooper, photo op, photo opportunities, publicity stunt, Purple Hearts, real heroes, rucksacks, security details, U.S. Army Rangers, United States Army, United States Military Academy at West Point, Vietnam, water, weapon and ammo, weapons qualification, West Point

As I wrote on July 10, in the post, Rev. Jesse Jackson is irrelevant in today’s society, it seems he really needs to learn to shut hit mouth, stay out of the public spotlight, give up being a public figure, and not give any interviews — to local, nation, international, or even target-market publications — ever again.

Now, for the second time in a month, he is under fire badmouthing presidential candidate Barack Obama, running as a democrat.

Tags: apologies, Barack Obama, castrate, castration, Chicago, Chicago Illinois, Christian, civil rights, commercial break, Fox and Friends, Fox News, n-bomb, n-word, Obama, open microphone, Operation PUSH, presidential candidate, protests, Rainbow Coalition, Rev. Jesse Jackson, Sen. Barack Obama, sit-ins, testicles